Christmas Truce 1914

CTPA lines up diverse array of acts for new season

The Columbia Theatre will offer a group that performs dances from India, a Broadway musical that's new to the community and veteran actor Ed Asner during the season that starts in September.

The nine-performance season also includes an evening of jazz, a musical play set during World War I and some wacky men and women in kilts.

The theater has started selling single tickets for shows, which range in price from $25 to $45 for most shows, with discounts available for multiple events.

Last season, the theater offered 10 shows, and the lineup in years past has inclulded as many as 17 shows. But theater Executive Director Gian-Paul Morelli said the overall audience stays about the same from year to year, so the theater holds down expenses by presenting fewer shows with higher average audiences.

The average attendance for CTPA-produced shows last season was 623, or 78 percent of the hall's capacity.

Last season, Morelli said the only show that didn't sell enough tickets to meet revenue projections headlined impersonator Rich Little. Though Little was a major TV attraction in the 1960s, his appeal is probably too narrow these days, Morelli said.

He thinks the "big name" of the upcoming season, Asner, will do better. Though Asner's biggest TV roles were in the 1970s, he's stayed active voicing cartoons. "His career path is much wider," Morelli said.

Though the city of Longview owns the Columbia Theater, a non-profit organization operates it and presents the shows. The theater also is rented to outside presenters, which last season staged such acts as the Pioneer Lions Cabaret and Elvis tribute artist Justin Shandor.

Morelli and the theater board have been working on a "brand" for the venue. Rather than one genre of act, such as Broadway shows or Celtic, the theater hopes to build a brand based on high-quality acts in a variety of styles, he said, adding "There are many different ways you can come to the Columbia Theatre."

Again this year, the theater will send out 50,000 brochures to potential ticket buyers from Chehalis to Vancouver. But the marketing campaign is shifting south. The CPTA will advertise in Portland Opera brochures and maybe with other Portland classical music organizations.

"Our brand has to reach way beyond this community," Morelli said.

To attract audiences from the Vancouver area, the theater is emphasizing its relatively intimate size compared to major Portland venues.

World War One: The Christmas Truce of 1914|News and Society Site

In the midst of war, in 1914, a remarkable event happened which was the first and last of its kind.

The Christmas Truce of 1914 was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires which took place along the Western Front.

In the week preceding Christmas, ad hoc groups of British and German troops began exchanging small gifts with their foes across No Man’s Land.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914, many soldiers from both sides ventured into No Man’s Land, where they fraternised, exchanged gifts, food and souvenirs. Further to the fraternisation, several of the meetings ended in carol singing and games of football.

This iconic truce was and is seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity in the midst of death and destruction. Despite the ‘goodwill’ feeling, fighting did continue in some regions of the Front and in some sectors the festive spirit was little more than an agreement to recover bodies. Sadly the following year, 1915, several units attempted a similar ceasefire, but it was nothing like the truce of 1914.

The truce of 1914 was not a singular event of its kind. The humanity inherent in all human beings came out amongst soldiers, especially when infantry units were in close proximity to each other. The units would inadvertently stop aggressive behaviour, fraternise and on occasion meet to exchange goods. In certain sectors of the front, official ceasefires would be arranged where the wounded and dead could be collected by both sides. The Christmas truce of 1914 was however significant due to the numbers of men involved and the festive level of participation.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, there were several peace attempts by both sides. One example being the ‘Open Christmas Letter’ which was a public message for peace addressed to the Women of Germany and Austria and signed by over 100 British Suffragists. Another example was Pope Benedict XV who on December 7th 1914, begged for an official truce between the warring governments.
Looking specifically at Christmas, there was no official truce, but, over 100,000 troops were involved in unofficial cessations along the entire length of the Western Front.

The first truce was on Christmas Eve, when German soldiers began to decorate the area around their trenches.

The Germans placed candles and makeshift tinsel decorations around their trenches and on Christmas trees. The Germans then proceeded to sing Christmas carols. The British troops facing the German trenches then began to sing carols, throughout the night both sides sang Christmas carols to one another. Following this, there were inquisitive excursions into No-Mans-Land where small gifts were exchanged.

Christmas truce, The Western Front, December 1914

Silent night, the story of the World War I Christmas truce

The campaign of 1914 in France and Belgium

All about Christmas

Truce, the day the soldiers stopped fighting